This season Aston Villa, now under a resurgence with Tim Sherwood at the helm, face a trip to Wembley where they will face Liverpool in the FA Cup Semi Final on Sunday. The sides have met each other seven times in the FA Cup with three actually being at the Semi Final stage.
In those three Semi Final games Villa won one, in 1897, 3-0. They then went on to lift the trophy that year and also the League title. For Liverpool though the stats are not as great. Although they won two of the three FA Cup Semi Finals against Villa they never went on to lift the cup. It would be nice for Liverpool Captain to win the FA Cup this season, not only is it his last season at the club, but it would also mark the 50th anniversary of the sides first FA Cup victory.
Of course by the time this game takes place on Sunday they will already know who they will play in the Final. In Saturdays FA Cup game will see Reading, who are reaching the Semi Final stage for the first time in almost 90 years, face off against eleven time winners and current holders, Arsenal.
In the FA Cup Reading have played Arsenal three times, and lost every single time. Although in that 1927 FA Cup Semi Final defeat to Cardiff the other Semi Final saw Arsenal progress against Southampton only to lose the Final. The Gunners first FA Cup win was in 1930, 85 years ago. When the last surviving player from that game, Bill Seddon died in 1991, Arsenal won that years competition too!
But back to the talk about the FA Cup losing its appeal and Paul Lamberts comments. Do his words ring true? Has the FA Cup lost its appeal?
It is true that the Premiership is now the big money competition for most English sides and if you are in the bottom half of the league or fighting for promotion to the Premiership, then yes, maybe it is not your priority for that particular season. Although this season, with Villa almost safe, it certainly would be something for the Villa fans to cheer. Aston Villa have won the trophy 7 times in their history, although the last time was back in 1957. In fact it has been almost 20 years since Aston Villa last lifted any domestic silverware. That was the League Cup when Savo Milosovic, Ian Taylor and Dwight Yorke scored to give Villa the 3-0 win against Leeds United.
Arguments against the cup were made recently that in the case of Wigan Athletic winning the FA Cup two seasons before getting relegated. Questions raised as to whether the players would sacrifice the cup win in order to stay in the Premiership. That suggests that winning games in the FA Cup didn't give them confidence in the league. The stats suggest otherwise with the team getting the same amount of points in the games before and after their FA Cup campaign began. The difference is the 18 points in the league gained during the cup run was achieved with four less games. In that 4 less games they scored 3 more goals and conceded 5 less. So in fact an argument could be made that had they not won the FA Cup, and gone out at an earlier round, then they may also have been relegated earlier, too. Certainly the demise of the club this season would suggest that FA Cup or not the relegation from the Premier League was inevitable.
Also it’s unlikely most of the players in the Wigan side will go on to play in a Champions League or Premier League winning team so this would most likely be the highlight of their career. Players move, though, and maybe some will but for the fans, the die hard Wigan supporters, it would take something to lever that experience away from them. Same can certainly be said of Portsmouth fans after their win in 2008 and Wimbledon in 1988. Even to get to the Final is a grand day out for fans, try taking the experience away from Stoke City fans when Manchester City won it in 2011 or Cardiff City fans back in 2008.
Even if you do not get to the final, some lower league teams look forward to the chance of a big payday that can be the difference in paying the wages, building a stand or improving the club. Certainly Macclesfield in this years competition can now pay January and February's wages after their 1-1 tie against Sheffield Wednesday. When the replay took place at Hillsborough a week and a bit later they added more much needed finds to their coffers, despite losing 4-1.
To get to the third round, when the Premier League sides join in, sometimes can be like the small clubs own finals. League One Oldham Athletic traveled to Anfield to take on Premiership title chasers, Liverpool. Oldham’s own league position, fighting to stay in the third tier of English football, but for the day they got to play in a big stadium and test themselves against some of the world’s best.
In a later round last season, we saw the Friday evening game with Coventry City, winners of the competition in 1987 travel to Arsenal. The fans of Coventry haven’t had a whole great deal to shout about recently with their financial situation meaning they couldn’t even play their games at their home stadium.
In the same season Non League Kidderminster Harriers had their players out on the field at the Sunderland’s Stadium of Light taking pictures of themselves in front of certain parts of the stadium in a visual display of how great a day out each round is for a certain section of the sides. The fact they just lost by a single goal boosted their confidence for the remainder of the season.
So no, the idea of the FA Cup has lost its appeal in general but the FA have tried. It’s good to see that the FA Cup has now been restored to after the conclusion of the Premier League. If we can just arrange to play the Semi Finals away from Wembley, so that the trip there is extra special, then the passion will return to the oldest and best club competition in the World. That, and being smarter with the tv scheduling would be great. Imagine the disappointment of Reading and their fans to have their Semi Final date at Wembley with the mighty Arsenal kick off ten minutes before the much anticipated and title clash between Chelsea and United. Even on the BBC sports website, under fixtures, the Premier League is listed first and then the FA Cup Semi Final.
If the real problem of the FA Cup is a ‘loss of the gloss,’ then I would suggest it is mainly due to the changes to it from the FA. You cannot have an historically special and iconic tournament, change the day of the final, location of semi finals, step back and wonder why it isn't special anymore. Trying to make more money at the tail end of the competition (Wembley Semi Finals) just robs it of the thing which made it special in the first place.
To quote Ruby Thewes from Cold Mountain, 'They made the weather and then they stand in the rain and say 'shit, it's raining.’”
Jason is a Freelance Soccer Writer. You can follow him on Twitter @PACityboy and www.facebook.com/jasonbardwell1979
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